Scrapbooking

12/15/2017

I had such a great time being a display stamper for OnStage Vancouver in November of last year and again in April when I attended the one in Calgary. It was fun to work with new products and challenge myself creatively. So, I decided to apply once again for the upcoming OnStage event in Las Vegas in April.

To apply you have to submit photos of 3 cards, a scrapbook page and 2 3D projects. I tried to create and choose a variety of project styles and colours:)

This scrapbook page just makes me smile. At my son's high school they had an obstacle course set up called the Tough Wally (their take on the Tough Mudder) and to participate the kids had to raise money for the Terry Fox Foundation. His 11 year old cousin Poppy was diagnosed with leukemia in July, so this cause hit very close to home. When he came to me and said that he and his friends wanted to participate as a team for Poppy, I am pretty sure I cried. The colours in the Perfect Days Memories and More card pack worked perfectly with the colours in my photos and coordinated well with the Naturally Eclectic DSP.

Here is a look at the full spread. I love mixing pocket style scrapbooking with tradition pages. After he ran the course and went through several muddy obstacles, including having a bucket of mud dumped on his head by his loving older sister (anything for charity;), she was there at the finish line to give him a great big hug, mud and all,lol.

Now this cute little banner is a bit more seasonally appropriate. I started with some Merry Music Specialty DSp and backed on to some Whisper White thick cardstock to give it stability. And after my last post I am sure you know how much I am in love with the metallic foil sheets and the mixed metallics in the Year of Cheer Specialty DSP.

I doubled up the Gold and Silver 1/8" ribbon to hand the pennants on and added a couple die cut snowflakes topped with them Metal rimmed Pearls.

I think this is my favourite of the 3 Flurry of Wishes cards that I posted yesterday. To get all of the details for this card you can view my previous post HERE.

Here is a cute little box that I decorated using the Delightful Daisy DSP. I love dressing up boxes with SU! gorgeous papers.

This card is the perfect example of using up scrap pieces of paper. I have a habit of hoarding my pretty papers instead of using them, but I have made it my mission lately to use it. I still though save all of my scrap pieces and that is how I ended up making this card. The Painted Autumn DSP is certainly one of my favourites from the 2017 Holiday Catalogue, as well as the Painted Harvest stamp set.

For this card I created my own background paper. Sometimes all that is need for a great card is paper, stamps, ink and minimal embellishments. I used the floral image from the Bike Ride stamp set. I really like the mix of pinks and orange together, I used all In Colours; Peekaboo Peach, Powder Pink, Sweet Sugar Plum and Berry Burst.

Thank you for visiting my blog today and I will be back next week with some Christmas cards and projects. I am hoping to spend at least some of the weekend creating!

11/19/2017

Okay so I am the first person to admit I am not to savvy when it comes to social media, especially Snap Chat. Actually I didn't even have Snap Chat until last week when I had 5 hours at the airport to wait around and I thought it might be fun to download the app and try and figure it out. Ummm well that turned into a phone call to my 18 year old daughter, lol with me asking her to walk me through it! I am sure to the people around me in the airport it was quite comical. I honestly wanted it for the fun filters, plus did you know there is a filter on there that makes you look amazing?! Seriously, it's like you, but better. Anything that can make this tired looking, mother of three and 40+ year old look good, sign me up;)

Anyway my daughter thinks it's hilarious to snap photos of me when I am not looking and adding ridiculous filters that, let's just say aren't very flattering. So a few weeks ago I decided to humour her and take a few selfies together. Which resulted in the following photos and scrap page.

For this traditional 12x12 page I used a collection of products from the Naturally Eclectic Suite (p.132&133 in the Annual Catalogue). The patterned papers in DSP (Designer Series Papers) are colourful, fun and have a watercoloured feel to them. I layered several of the patterns for this page to create a sense of fun and whimsy. The title was created by cutting out some of the DSP with the Large Letter Framelits and I left some space below the "OH" for journalling.

The images and sentiments from the Oh So Eclectic stamp set were used to stamp a background and create the word strips under the photos. The embossed Lemon Lime Twist Heart was created using the Eclectic Layers Thinlits and then cut out using Paper Snips.

All in all a relatively simple page but I love how it turned out and I am happy to have captured these moments in photos and am able to relive them forever because I actually got them printed and put down on paper. I have always loved scrapping but it had kind of fallen to the way side as life got busier and busier over the past few years. But now more then ever I am realizing the importance of capturing and recording these moments.

Have a wonderful Day and I hope I have inspired you to do something with all of those photos you take!

06/03/2017

As many of you know that have followed me for awhile, I have three children and the older they get the harder it is for me to convince ( ie. bribe) them to let me take a photo of them all together or at some points I am even happy to get just one of them. Having 2 teenagers in the house now certainly makes life interesting. I will note that the ten year contributes her share of craziness as well. But sometimes my kids do something that really surprises me (in a good way) and Christmas was one of those times. My oldest arranged to get photos taken by friend and local photographer Craig Roberts at Watershed Photography. I finally got some gorgeous photos of the three of them together as well as some beautiful individual shots.

The gorgeous Delightful Daisy DSP in the new 2017/18 Annual Catalogue has to be one of my favourite papers to date. I was thrilled when I received it as part of the product I got to work with several months back for the Calgary OnStage samples. I created a 12x12 scrapbook page using some of the individual shots from the kids photo session.

I have long made it known that I have a love (bordering obsession) of pretty patterned paper. I use to have a very hard time actually using large amounts of it in fear of running out. Silly I know, and you can bet I will be ordering several more packs of this stunning DSP. So for this page I went totally crazy and used a full sheet plus two other pieces from different sheets!

Pattern mixing with papers makes such a great visual impact when done correctly. For this page I used a full floral covered sheet then layered on DSP that had more of a solid background with subtle patterns. I kept the page very clean looking by just adding small embellishments and bold numbers to represent my kids birth order. The new Touches of Nature Elements are cute little wood veneers shapes that have leaves and floral pieces. I may have squealed a little when I first saw these:)

As always shoot me an email if you have any questions and let me know if you would like to receive a copy of the new Catologue.

01/25/2017

When I first started paper crafting over 9 years ago it was all because I want to make some Christmas cards. I remember that feeling of accomplishment when I first pressed that inked stamp image to paper and pulled it up to reveal a perfect image. It was shortly after that experience that I also fell in love with scrapbooking.

I will admit that I have turned into a total mamarazzi but as my children get older they are not wanting me to take their pictures as often as I used to, but when they do you better bet that I scrap them. We all went to Disneyland back in August and had such a great time. The kids and even my husband (occasionally) indulged this shutterbug, and I couldn't be happier with having those memories captured forever:)

This photo in particular stole my heart as I just love the goofy expressions on my girls faces. There is almost 8 years between the two of them and in this moment they were both little kids (not 9 and 17) enjoying an imaginary tea party at Minnie's house.

I created a background of circles using the Sending Love DSP stack and the Layering Circles Framelits and arranged them in the shape of a heart. I even created a little Mickey icon using the circles:)

Just a quick reminder that Sale a bration is going on right now, so for every $60 spent you can get something FREE! And remember you can visit my website, place an order and have it delivered to your door!

01/08/2017

One of of the many great things about Stampin' Up! is that hey have amazing events where demonstrators can get together, have fun, stamp and learn about new product launches. I had the pleasure of going to a local OnStage event this past November in Vancouver and had so much fun!

Not only do we get to use new and upcoming products there are also amazing displays containing several samples using these products and they were all created by Stampin' Up! demonstrators. Right now they are calling for submissions for Display Stampers and i thought I would throw my hat in the ring:) I was fortunate enough to be chosen to create samples for the fall OnStage and it was such a fantastic experience!

For my submission I had to create 3 cards, 2 3D items and a scrapbook page, they didn't have to be brand new projects so I used a few recent ones and created a few new projects too.

For this scrapbook page I used the new Sending Love Suite from the Occasions catalogue. I am a total mamarazzi so even my dogs are not safe from getting there pictures taken and scrapped! (They even have their own Instagram account @griffinthebasset, yes I am a crazy dog lady!)

I love the Cupcakes and Carousels 6x6 DSP stack. For this card and cute little gift box I used several of the patterns and the Balloon Adventures Stamp set and matching Balloon Bouquet Punch.The little box is a SU!'s white gift box just covered with the DSP and a little tag added. Such a quick, cute and easy way to wrap up a small gift.

What better way to give a sweet treat then to wrap it up in a glassine bag. Unforunately I didn't have anything to put in it, somehow we have a house full of cookie monsters (me included;).

I have been busy creating with lots of sale abration and occasions catalogue goodies so I will be back later with mores projects.

06/05/2016

Stampin' Up! will be having a fun event in November called Onstage and this year there is a local event in Vancouver. To say I am looking forward to it is an understatement. One of the things I missed most when I took a break from being a demo was the awesome events SU! would hold for their demonstrators and how amazing it was to connect with so many awesome people who share the same crazy passion for stamps and paper.

Another cool thing that they are doing this year is asking local demonstrators to be display stampers for the event. So this post is my application:) I loved creating display board samples the year I was an Artisan Award Winner, so fingers crossed I get to create some samples again.

With me being a "new" demo again I was seriously lacking in current SU! product but it just goes to show that you do not need a lot of stuff to create great projects. For this 12x12 scrapbook page I used the Affectionately Yours DSP and a sheet of Crumb cake card stock. This DSP have such nice clear colours and there are two specialty sheets with bronze foiled details; so pretty! I had to really get creative with my title as I have no current alphabet stamps or dies. I ended up using the "happy" from the Party Pop-Up Thinlets. I also used one of my absolute favourite stamp set and coordinating dies; Watercolor Wings and Butterfly Thinlets.

This is a super easy quick card with lots of white space. Sometimes even simple cards can have a big impact. To add interest I cut my top layer piece of card stock on an angle then a 3/4" strip of of one piece to create a space for my sentiment. The two panels are attached to the card base with Dimensionals (this is one of the crafting items I can not live with out). I used the Ballon Celebration Stamp set and matching Balloon Bouquet Punch. Add a little washi and some Whisper White Baker's Twine and you've got a cute quick card with texture and dimension.

As I mentioned early I do not have a lot of current SU! products so you may see a little bit of a recurring color scheme with my projects. There were some must have items that I had to get when I put in my first order and one of them was the 2015-2017 and 2016-2018 In Colors. This card showcases the very pretty Mint Macaron.

This card is probably my favourite one of the 3. It just seems so "me". I had the idea for this card before I even received my products. As soon as I saw the Hardwood Background stamp I knew I just had to have it and use it with White Craft Ink on Crumb Cake Card stock. I then did a lot of collage stamping with the Timeless Textures Stamp set using Versamark Ink and the matching Crumb Cake Ink. I then cut out a piece of Vellum Card stock using the Lots of Labels Framelits and added some watercolor using an Aqua Painter and Peekaboo Peach and Sweet Sugar Plum (2016-2018 In Colors). I then did some stamping on the vellum with white ink to add subtle texture. The butterfly was stamped using Mint Macaron and Peekaboo Peach (I stamped off some of the ink first to give a softer look).

To apply as a display stamper you were required to make 3 cards, a scrapbook page and 2 3D projects. For my first 3D I created this cute tiny scrapbook box. This little project makes such a fun gift and is easy enough to create with kids. When I said little I mean little. The finished box measures 4" squared. I used Night of Navy card stock along with the beautiful Affectionately Your DSP.

For the second 3D project I decorated this simple white picture frame from IKEA. Washi Tape is great for dressing up a plain frame. I love the beautiful multilayer images in the Picture perfect Stamp set but I really adore this sentiment from the set. I thought it would be the perfect phrase to put on this picture of my 16 year old. Phrase strip stickers are very on trend within the scrapbooking industry at the moment so I created my own by cutting up the words into strips.

Well that is it from me for the moment but I can not tell you how much fun it was to play around with SU! products and stretch my creativity.

08/11/2015

Excuse me as I blow the dust off my blog, I can't believe it has been 5 month since I posted anything! I wish I had some amazing stories to share of all of the fantastic, wonderful adventures I have been on these past several months, but I don't. I having been living the life that most people I know are living, the one that entails trying to find a work/life/me time balance that everyone seems to struggle with. So while it may seem that I am about to complain about never having enough time-yada yada; I am actually happy to say that I am at peace with where I am at this point in my life.

I have taken the past few months to try and focus on what matters, my family and for the first time me. Although I am by no means at a place where everything is running smoothly (truth be told I don't think I will ever be, and that's okay;), I am taking more time to try and enjoy the things around me rather then always trying to control what comes next and let's face it when you are a wife and mother of three, very little is in your control. However, what is in my control is how I react to things and the ugly truth of it is, it has not always (or even mostly) been with grace, understanding and forgiveness.

I still have been creating for Studio Calico and to be perfectly honest I have just recently found my love of paper crafting again. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love receiving my Studio Calico goodies every month (it seriously is one of the main things I look forward to every month and I love being part of the community there) but for a long time now I found myself only making things because they needed to be done. And while I loved what I was making I found myself only creating things for the CT commitments. Some times I would go weeks with out making anything-Gasp! I guess I just kind of burnt out, hence my silence here. I realized the other day that since I started paper crafting back in 2007 I have always had some sort of deadline that I was working on. Whether it be for various different Design Teams or coming up with projects for classes I was teaching, in some way I was always creating for some thing or some one other then just me. I needed to find my joy again, that place I was when I first held an inked stamp and discovered the magical world of card making and scrapbooking and this amazing community of crafters.

I am actually smiling as I type this right now because something happened the other day that renewed my love and passion for scrapbooking. I am not sure if it was one thing or a combination of things but all I know is that I created 3 traditional 12x12 scrapbook pages because I really wanted to, not because I needed to. I wanted to play with pretty paper and embellishments and not hoard them (this my friends, is a huge problem for me but I am working on it:) I wanted to print my photos and tell their story rather then dread having to edit and print them. So I am hoping this is a new habit for me and I intend on sharing my work here again as well as some other occasional ramblings and photos.

Well I guess after all of that wordiness I should get to sharing some projects, huh?

After loosing our beautiful Koda to cancer May of 2014 we welcomed a puppy into our home at the end of April. Our oldest took Koda's passing particularly hard, so watching her now with Griffin brings so much joy to us all. I have a ridiculous amount of patterned papers piling up around here along with tons of ephemera packages so I made sure to use a lot here. Might have over done it, but oh well,lol. Most of the supplies on the layout are from Crate Paper.

And this layout well it just makes me happy! Again used lots of patterned papers here, washi tape and tags. Even thought there is almost 4 years between these two, they are two peas in a pod and love each other fiercely, which sometimes means they fight with each other fiercely too. They are either best friends or worst enemies, but I have no doubt they will always have each other's back.

Well that's it for today but I can't wait to come back and post a few other things I have been working on.

And thank you to those that have been following my creative journey I really appreciate all of support I have received over the years it truly means so much to me.

02/09/2015

Things have been a little crazy around here lately and I realized today that I hadn't even posted my projects here for Studio Calico's newest kits Cirque.

These kits all full of fresh fun colours, and daring designs with a classic style. I had a blast working with them and I am in the process of using the Cirque Project Life kit along with the Roman Ladder Add On to work on my PL pages from the past two weeks, so there will be more pictures to post, I promise;)

This kit by far is one of my favourite card kits ever and I do not say the lightly. The stamp set designed by the incrediable Geralyn Sy is so easy to work with and the sheet of sticker sentiments is genius. Add in some wood veneer hearts, a vellum alpha and Twine and Ink puffy stickers plus an amazing 6x6 patterned paper pad and you have one very fun and full kit.

This card is a really simple one. I love the woodgrain paper and how the blue vellum alpha's contrast against it. I added in a few lines of stitching to add some texture and then layered a word sticker over those cute wood veneer hearts.

For this card i wanted to layer some of the fun patterned papers and do a little stamping. To add some interest and texture I backed one of the wood veneer hearts with that gorgeous pink polka dot vellum and added a small amount of stitching to one corner.

For these last two cards I wanted to use the hot air balloon image. The first one is showcased on top of off centered layers and then coloured in using COPIC markers. For the second one I really played on a black and white them with a few small pops of colour. The image was stamped several times on different patterned papers and cut out, then pieced together on the main image stamped on white cardstock.

I am trying to keep my approach to Project Life this year relatively simple. I think for me to have PL work I need embrace imperfection and not get hung up an a specific week. I am taking more of a monthly approach although I hope to have 3-4 two page spreads each month. The spead below documents the first 2 weeks of January.

I want the whole process of doucumenting our lives to feel like fun and not a chore so I am trying to do it so that it becomes a quick and easy process. That meant handwritten journalling. I still twitch a little looking at my crooked and somewhat messy penmanship, but I am trying to go with it (or atleast until I find a wonderful vintage typewriter-then all bets are off,l ol!).

Because I had a lot of journaling on the first page I decided to keep the second page more about the cute pictures and wonderful cards.Love the 4x6 wood veneer grid and the gold and powder blue hearts make me swoon. On the picture on thetop right corner I stamped directly on the photo using Flamingo ColorTheory Ink. I print my photos at home and either use a lustre or pearl finish photo paper and have had no problem with the inks stamping on the pictures.

Well that's it for now but I am actually getting my life more organized this year so that means I will be scheduling in blogging more consistantly and making time to create at least 3 times a week so that means there will be more projects to blog:)

12/15/2014

So excited to share a fabulous offer from Studio Calico. Right now you can start a new subscription and receive an add on absolutely free! The subscription will start with December's gorgeous Park Ave. Kit.

Ritz Add-On

Helmsley Add-On

Waldorf Add-On

Year In Review

Upcoming Year Card

Mad Lib Card Set

Park Ave Paper Pad

Season's Greetings Cards

You're My Fave Valentine Set

Happy Something Stamp Set

Terrarium Stamp Set

Banana Valentines Stamp Set

DEC14SUB

Valid only on new subscriptions and requires a 6-month commitment. Early subscription cancellations are subject to termination fee. Not valid on previous purchases. Must enter promo code at checkout. Refunds will not be issued for misused or non-entered codes. Expires 12/26/14 at 11:59 pm EST.

I love the fact that this applies to Add on stamps as well. Just look at that cute Banana Valentines's day set in action:

So cute right? And remember Christmas is only 10 days away so if there was anyone asking what you might like for Christmas.....;)

07/30/2014

I was so excited today when I finally had some time just for me. My husband is away for work and my younger two were at a friend's house, and well my teenager was home but for the most part she is pretty self sufficient;) So that meant I could get crafty! I have about a bazzilion photos that are waiting to be scrapped and it has been so long since I actually have made a layout that it felt so good to sit down and play with paper.

I know every month I share with you how much I love receiving my Studio Calico Kits and how easy they make card making but I also love the Card Kits for scrapbooking too! Because the kits are so jammed packed I have tons of product left over once I make my cards. Today I set out to create a page using left over bits and pieces from the Sandlot Card Kit and some left over Sandlot Printables. *I love using the 6x6 patterned paper from the card kits as I find the scaled down patterned size perfect for creating pages with lots of layers but I am still able to leave lots white space.

Here was the result:

This past weekend we all went to the PNE and had a wonderful time walking around, going on various rides and of course indulging in snow cones. I snapped this picture of my youngest as the kids sat down to eat them. I love the way the picture turned out and the typical scrapbooker in me squealed when I realized that the colours she was wearing woiuld go perfectly with the Sandlot Kit. I started my page off with a 8 1/2 x 11" piece of white card stock.

When I first printed out the Sandlot Printables by In a Creative Bubble I knew that I would use this quote card at some point and it just seemed to fit so perfectly with this picture. I cut it down to a 3x3" square and then cut another square the same size from the arrow patterned paper. Next I took the blue "love" paper and cut it to 5x5". I had severval scraps of patterned paper laying around so I played with them and layered to create more contrast and interest to my page.

I love ink and stamping and watercolours so I had to add all three of those to my page. I stamped my tilte using StazOn and watercoloured it in, then also added several brush strokes of colour using my waterbrush and the Peerless Watercolor Papers (these are seriously the best! I love how saturated the colour is but how effortlessly it blends out by adding more water). I then stamped on the top left and lower right corners of my page the tiny circle images using Sunny Day and Brush CrushColor Theory Inks. Of course to finish the page off Mister Huey's had to make an appearence and now that I am finally friends with my sewing machine I even added some stitching to various places!

It felt so good to actually finish a page! Now that I got scrappy today my space is even more of a disaster then usual!

Good thing I am all signed up for Studio Calico's Workspace Workshop with the amazing Marcy Penner. Goodness know I could use all the help I can get organizing my hoard of paper crafting supplies!

And I am also super excited for Nicole Harper's Bright Idea's 2 class! She is incredible at inspiring you to get your products off your desk and on to projects. This class is a steal at only $5! And I am really looking forward to using my ever growing stock pile of product.

If you are interested in either one of these classes or both be sure to order then now as registration closes for both 11:59pm (EST) July 31st.